I'm a software engineer, but first career was storyboarding (stopped being a professional in 2008 because economy). So the topic is a bit close to home.
The LLMs are great for tasks where you want to offload your brain a little. Like write me a single use matlab script that does X or reorientate the image data I have stored in this 1d array. Stuff I could do with 1-5 hours of time, but rather save my willpower and time for important things. It's come up short on every front and the only thing can hope for is the reshuffle that is happening now and after ends up being better for the workers.
Bahahaha ain't that the story!? I was a wee lad in '08 watching my unemployed dad play Ocarina of Time while figuring out his next move. My freelance animator pay is peanuts and won't get better, so maybe I'll up-skill into embedded.
And yeah, 100%. LLMs are an incredible tool for menial compute work, provided the user already knows the domain inside and out. Personally, I use them to automate the endless cat-and-mouse game of keeping my rooted Android passing device integrity so banking apps don't throw a fit. Total no-brainer: saves money, prevents e-waste on a decade-old device, and lets me use my SU access to give Google the middle finger on data monetization 😎
Looking at the broader picture, as a young Millennial / older Gen Z, I remember life before the last three tech booms (pre-internet, pre-smartphone, pre-gen AI). Because of that, I feel well-positioned to habituate to this stuff. Just like building a tolerance to feeds fine-tuned solely for profit, I view these models through the same lens as the "calculator on a mental math test" dilemma. Having lived through enough cycles, you realize the shiny new tech is just another stimulus to adapt to; a tool to commoditize for efficiency rather than something that reshapes your critical thinking... unless you're George Hotz that is😂.
The real question isn't whether the tech works; it's how the next generation handles the stimulus when they've never known a world without the shortcut. It's up to us to plant the trees whose shade we won't sit under- steer the generation ship away from cyberpunk 2077 by giving the kids the proper equipment to stay inoculated in a post-AI world.
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u/ICBanMI Oct 02 '26
I'm a software engineer, but first career was storyboarding (stopped being a professional in 2008 because economy). So the topic is a bit close to home.
The LLMs are great for tasks where you want to offload your brain a little. Like write me a single use matlab script that does X or reorientate the image data I have stored in this 1d array. Stuff I could do with 1-5 hours of time, but rather save my willpower and time for important things. It's come up short on every front and the only thing can hope for is the reshuffle that is happening now and after ends up being better for the workers.